Archive for January, 2011

I had mixed feeling about this years Rolex 2.4 event. Last years event featured the Daytona Prototype only (and it was a GREAT event). This years was a multiclass event featuring the Daytona Prototype and Ford Mustang FR500S. I’m not a huge fan of multiclass events, but I really wanted to race the event so I chose the Mustang and set about joining the race.

Clearly, multiclass racing with two different car classes is difficult and very risky, but the race got off to a good start. My split had 29 Daytona Prototypes and 11 Mustangs. We got through the first lap well, slowing down for some pretty big Prototype crashes, and the chasing Mustang pack settled into the long race ahead.

We were doing a good job when the DP’s started to catch us. The first few were reasonably spread apart, but the following pack of Prototypes caused havoc in the bus stop, and a spinning Prototype veered directly into my car and destroyed my race – lap 4.

Lap 4 - The Prototype spun around and veered into my path

I used my reset and set about racing once more. I was the only Mustang out of the 11 who had used a reset so I was stuck in 39th place, racing no-one (very boring!). A few laps later it got a bit busy entering the oval section – Prototypes going high and other Prototypes going low. As a slower class car, changing your line = death, so I gritted my teeth and held the middle of the track. Unfortunately a following Prototype clearly thought I was not going to hold my line and drove into the back of me, causing a wreck (and involving a few other cars too). So, wreck number 2, race over.

Lap 10 - The lapping Prototype, moments before contact

Can’t say I didn’t expect it, a disappointing start to the 2011 World Tour.

iRacing have announced their schedule for the 2011 iRacing World Tour events, and it’s a mix of the old with the new.

The season starts with a repeat of the 2.4 Hours of Daytona endurance event, only this time it’s a multi class event with the Daytona Prototype and Ford Mustang.

Other repeat events are the showcase events such as the Daytona 500 and Indy 500.

Looking at the schedule as it currently appears, there’s no event that I am going to rule out at this stage. All look like events that are worth racing. I expect one or two of them will be run at days and times that I can’t make, but we’ll see as we get closer to each event.

In the meantime I’m looking forward to running in the second 2.4 Hours of Dayonta. Last years opening event was a very memorable race (my race report for the 2010 event is here).